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Date: Mon, 23 Nov 98 13:51 WET From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Science in support of recycling (David Kleinfelter)
Nov. 23, 1998
Dear David Kleinfelter,
Please let your mayor know, respectfully, that the allegation that science does not support recycling, is as impossible to prove as is its converse. Recycling to manage nonhazardous waste instead of landfilling or incineration, is very much supported by most scientists whom I have had contact with over 9 years at the US EPA. Some support scientific recycling at the molecular level (which is impractical) and most accept it as a wise use of resources. I am certain that I could name 10 scientists who do not supp0oort recycling, and that 5 of them would be on the staff of industries involving nonrenewable resources, as a minor contributor to the income of those scientists.
It is notable that even the most ardent opponents of recycling have used economistic arguments, not scientific arguments to oppose trecycling, and that think tanks like The Cato Institute are renowned opponents of reecycling, but they are political economists of a libertarian persuasion, not scientists. The Center for the Study of American Business is another usual opponent, peopled with economists, not scientists.
Respectfully, your mayor is talking without documentatiohn.
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